Eric Reid was signed four weeks into the season, and says he was tested seven times in 11 weeks

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Carolina Panthers’ Eric Reid (25) kneels as Cam Newton (1) stands during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the New York Giants in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Jason E. Miczek)

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No sooner had former 49ers safety Eric Reid found a taker for his services this season than he began to complain he was being targeted by the NFL’s drug-testing gendarmes.

By Reid’s count, he was tested seven times in 11 weeks. “That has to be statistically impossible,” he said. “I’m not a mathematician, but there’s no way that’s right.” (The NFL tests for banned drugs because it has never been able to otherwise explain ripped 275-pounders who run like gazelles.)

Reid’s contention is that the NFL has a vendetta against him because 1) he knelt during the national anthem before NFL games with Colin Kaepernick when both were with the 49ers, and 2) he joined Kaepernick in a collusion grievance against the league, the former teammates feeling as if they were being blackballed.

Reid was signed by the Carolina Panthers after the fourth week of the season. He started 13 games, making 71 tackles. Kaepernick couldn’t even get a workout with an NFL team.

The NFL and the NFL’s Players Association leapt to deny Reid’s allegations in the most vague and dismissive manner possible.

“There is no evidence of targeting or any other impropriety with respect to his selection for testing,” the league and association said in a joint statement. “Mr. Reid’s tests were randomly generated via computer algorithm. His selection for testing was normal.”

Stranger things have happened in the NFL, but not since Joe Namath modeled panty hose in a TV commercial.

Gary Peterson is a sports writer for the Bay Area News Group. His prior assignments included 31 years as a sports columnist, serving as a general assignment news reporter, covering courts and writing a metro column before finding his way back to sports.